1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to pneumatic conveying systems, and more particularly to a pneumatic conveying system for conveying articles to be conveyed, which are successively discharged from an assembling machine, to a plurality of conveying positions.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a conveying system for conveying articles to be conveyed, which are successively discharged from an assembling machine, to a plurality of conveying positions, a system using a conveyor has been known. However, this type of conveying system is disadvantageous in that the longer the conveying distance is, the higher the initial cost of the equipment becomes.
Then, a pneumatic conveying system which is low in cost has been proposed, including one using air shooter capsules (special purpose capsules for conveying) (bulletins of Japanese Patent Kokai (Laid-Open) Nos. 152713/1983 and 152714/1983). In these air shooter capsule conveying methods, the articles to be conveyed are automatically housed in air shooter capsules, the air shooter capsules are delivered to a sending station, and the air shooter capsules are pneumatically conveyed from this sending station to a plurality of receiving stations connected to this sending station through a pneumatic tube. Furthermore, in pneumatically conveying the air shooter capsule to a desirable receiving station, a switch provided on the pneumatic tube is actuated to switch a route of transportation and so on.
However, since the conventional pneumatic conveying system uses the air shooter capsules, such disadvantages are presented that putting the articles to be conveyed into the air shooter capsules and taking the articles therefrom are complicated, and the system is not suitable for conveying articles in large quantities. Therefore, it has been proposed to directly convey the articles to be conveyed. However, in this case, the air shooter capsules are not used, so that flow control measure for the articles and blocking preventive measure for the articles in a transporting piping should be effected.